Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton defended the character of Adrian Peterson while characterizing as "troubling" the Vikings' recent string of player arrests, including an incident this month in which the club's superstar running back was jailed following an altercation in a Houston bar.

In an interview with Minnesota Public Radio on Tuesday, July 17, Dayton said some players are "falling considerably short" of being role models when host Kerri Miller asked the governor about the Pioneer Press' Sunday report chronicling the team's legal troubles. The Vikings' 10 arrests since 2011 are almost twice as many as any other NFL team, and their 39 arrests since 2000 also lead the league.

Dayton championed legislation that authorized the state to finance $348 million toward a new Vikings stadium to replace the Metrodome.

"Idle time is the devil's play," said Dayton, describing the NFL's six-month offseason. "It means that young males who are heavily armored and heavily psyched as necessary to carry out their job are probably more susceptible to being in bars at 2 o'clock (in the morning) and having problems. It doesn't excuse it. It just says this probably comes with it."

Dayton linked the wayward behavior of players to post-traumatic stress disorder soldiers suffer after returning home from combat, describing professional football as "civilized war."

"Shake one of their hands and you know that this (football player) is someone who is not your ordinary citizen.

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They're heavily armored, heavily psyched to do what they have to do and go out there. It's, basically, slightly civilized war," Dayton said.

"Then they take that into society. Much as soldiers come back, they've been in combat or the edge of it and suddenly that adjustment back to civilian life is a real challenge. And that's part of the reality. That's not to say it's good and it shouldn't be improved. It should."

Dayton said NFL players are role models who should not be given special treatment by law enforcement.

"I think they should be held as accountable to follow the laws of our society as anyone else, and the consequences should be the same," he said. "I wish there could be instilled that badge of honor so they would hold themselves to a higher standard or the league could. Obviously, they're falling considerably short of that now."

Dayton spent about five minutes discussing the Vikings' legal troubles during a 45-minute interview with Miller that mostly covered state business.

The governor also weighed in on Peterson's case. The running back was charged with misdemeanor resisting arrest after a July 7 altercation.

Houston police said Peterson was twice asked by an off-duty officer to leave a nightclub a little after 2 a.m. before Peterson shoved the officer and assumed a violent stance when the officer tried to arrest him, eventually requiring three officers to detain him.

Peterson has proclaimed his innocence while his attorney, Rusty Hardin, called the shoving allegations a "fabrication" and says officers struck Peterson at least twice that morning. A court hearing is scheduled for Aug. 6.

"Adrian Peterson, who I've met several times and who has really proven to be an upstanding citizen and a really fine role model," Dayton said, "he claims he was not responsible for that altercation.

"I asked my own security people and they said it varies from one state to another, but if a police officer was off-duty, in plainclothes, and so somebody assumes he's a bouncer, does that person have the authority to expect to be treated like a police officer? Where do you draw that line there?